League of Light: Wicked Harvest Review – Scarecrow Shenanigans

The
Good

Simple puzzles that are fun to solve.

Great scenery with a wonderful atmosphere.

Amazing artwork.

The
Bad

Challenge level is pretty low.

On a perfectly dreary rain soaked day, you, detective, have been summoned to Blake’s Mountain on the eastern side of Ireland. It seems some children have gone missing as of late, and the local authorities suspect something strange is at work. Actually, they’re quite sure of it, which is why the League has officially requested your presence. Not to point fingers or anything, but these townsfolk really should have been more suspicious of that evil scarecrow perched outside of town.

League of Light: Wicked Harvest is a casual hidden object game that sends you on a rainy adventure through village and countryside in search of an evil entity that’s kidnapping children. Not just kidnapping, but turning them to glowing dust and storing them in vials. As you investigate the strange series of events, you’ll come across all kinds of puzzles and obstacles, each requiring the delicate touch of a detective to solve. Or, you know, a crowbar and a crossbow. No really, you get to use both of those in the first five minutes of the game. Nice!

League of Light keeps your exploration mostly confined to a few small areas, each of which is stocked to the brim with things to examine and items to pick up. Some items are also interactive, forcing you to look at them closer to see if you can change their form to make them more useful. The puzzles largely stick to casual adventure game fare with magnets on ropes and sharp objects to cut things open, but occasionally Wicked Harvest will surprise you with something out of the ordinary.

Hidden object scenes are dynamic and interesting in League of Light. Most of them feature a series of listed or silhouetted items at the bottom of the screen. Each time you find one, you also have to use it on the scene above, meaning you’ll actually have to pay attention to what’s going on! HOG scenes go by pretty quickly, but they’re entertaining and engaging for what they are.

The core of the League of Light: Wicked Harvest experience speeds along at a surprisingly fast pace. This is largely due to the predictable nature of the puzzles. If you’re a hidden object game veteran, you’ll recognize the tropes ten screens away and be able to prepare for them before they’re even an obstacle. It doesn’t mean the puzzles aren’t fun to solve, only that you won’t often be surprised by the process.

League of Light: Wicked Harvest sags ever so slightly in the puzzle design and gameplay department, but the host of other features more than make up for it. The game looks fantastic and doesn’t skimp on things like cutscenes or voice acting, giving it a polished look from head to toe. The mini-games, too, are genuinely interesting. It’s a brightly polished gem of a game that knows it doesn’t have to break any of the rules to deliver a good experience, plain and simple.